1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to multifunctional website hot spots, i.e. hyperlinks, and more particularly, to a program or software based tool for creating, using, modifying and/or modifying multifunctional hot spots in web applications that run over a globally accessible network and a function expanding menu bar.
2. Description of the Background Art
Interactive digital media and the use of hyper-linking tools to visit a designated location or perform a pre-defined function, such as hot spots, are generally known in the art. For instance, hyper-linking tools have been developed for making text and graphics available for interactive use, such as linking to pages within a website or to other websites, making purchases or initiating other actions. A link is typically made using text, icons, images or other objects appearing in a display to access another text file, program or media function. NBCi (a trademark of NBC Internet, Inc.) provides a website at “quickclick.com” that assigns a hyperlink to certain words for accessing other webpages and/or websites when those words are clicked. Based on current technology, hot spots and hyper links are limited to preordained functions and are internally static, such that they have not been programmed or modified to perform a wide variety of functions. In addition, hot spots have not been widely adapted or incorporated into video files. As the applications employed on the Internet fail to adequately address the foregoing issues, the instant invention gives the end user the ability to effectively and efficiently control and change the response of multifunctional hot spots and hyperlinks on a website. Consequently, this invention would be well received, especially in connection with video.
As noted, the use of hyperlinks and hotspots are known in the art, however current applications are static and do not address the problems noted above. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,012 discloses the hyperlinking of time-based data files and embedding movies into other file types. It does not disclose the use of hot spots, as contemplated by the instant invention, and does not load the data file at startup but rather consults it on every click. U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,845 discloses a system for mapping hot spots in media content for interactive digital media program. This patent discloses data files being separate from the video and linking to additional types of data. However, it fails to disclose the ability to change the type of information each hot spot links to, or having a hot spot that links to multiple databases or sites. U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,871 discloses a method and system for accessing associated data sets in a multimedia environment in a data processing system and associating data with elements in a multimedia presentation. The user may elect to have the associated data set presented by selecting the additional graphic element associated with the animated element. U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,504 discloses a moving image anchoring and hypermedia apparatus which estimates the movement of an anchor based on the movement of the object with which the anchor is associated and time intervals in which the hyperlink is active.
The foregoing prior art fails to disclose hyperlink and hot spot technology that is flexible, adaptable for use in digital media files, such as audio and video, platform independent, multi-tasked, and changeable and adaptable in functionality. The prior art also fails to disclose a menu bar that communicates with hot spots for creating, using and modifying website hot spots. Hyperlink and hot spot technology having these specifications would be well received. Consequently, there exist a need for programmable hyperlinks, multifunctional hot spots and a corresponding interactive menu bar.